Hamdallah says PA ready to deal with any Israeli deductions on Palestinian revenues

Ramallah (QNN) – Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said on Saturday that the Palestinian Authority has put in place scenarios to deal with any future deductions by the Israeli occupation authorities off the tax revenues the latter collects on behalf of the PA.

Speaking during an official visit to Bethlehem district, south of the West Bank, Hamdallah said scenarios have been put in place to deal with any deduction in tax revenues amounting to the value of the salaries the PA pays to the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the families of Palestinian martyrs.

“The families of the martyrs and the prisoners have a right and a duty upon us, as President Mahmoud Abbas has said. Their [salaries] are our duty and a debt owed by us,” the Prime Minister said as quoted by Wafa, the official PA news agency.

Last year, Israel passed a legislation allowing the Israeli government to withhold about $32 in tax revenues it collects every month on behalf of the PA under the Oslo Accords. Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the deduction will go ahead.

Ibrahim Khreisheh, the Palestinian representative at the UN Human Rights Council, has said that the PA would complain to the HRC about Israel’s intention to consider such deductions.

Palestinians say such payments are a key source of income for families who have lost their main breadwinner.

Israel currently detains about 6,500 Palestinians for resisting its occupation of the Palestinian territories. The detainees are considered political prisoners in Palestinian society.